Citizen scientists discover planet in quadruple star system

Shown is the Milky Way above the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The more distant telescope in the photo was used to survey planets in our galaxy. On Planet Hunters' website over 170,000 citizen scientists have registered to search for new planets.

Our take: The first planet, confirmed by Planet Hunters citizen science website proves the site to be a valuable source for the astrological community. Tony Hoffman, from PC Magazine shares more about the new planet and the website:

"The Planet Hunters citizen science website proved its mettle in a big way yesterday with the announcement of its first confirmed planet discovery, which also happens to be the first planet to be found in a quadruple star system.

Like Kepler 16-B (aka "Tatooine"), the new worlddubbed Planet Hunters 1 or PH1orbits a close binary star; a second pair of stars much farther away is also gravitationally bound to the system. The Planet Hunters team has submitted a paper detailing the find to the Astrophysical Journal, with citizen scientist volunteers Kian Jek and Robert Gagliano listed as co-authors."

Popular Comments

Mr. Hong: Your article said: "Our take: The first planet, confirmed by
Planet Hunters citizen science website proves the site to be a valuable source
for the astrological community." Didn't you mean astronomical
community, rather than
More..